Lifeboats risk stormy seas and save lives for almost 200 years

RNLI expects busy summer retrieving tourists who get cut off, marooned or swept away by tides

It is almost 200 years since the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck was formed and this voluntary institution has been saving lives ever since. There should be a celebration in 2024 when the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), as it was later renamed, reaches this anniversary.

At the time of its formation thousands of vessels were under sail around British coasts. They carried such commodities as coal from Newcastle to London and slate from Wales for roofing. A fleet of small fishing boats was also vital to the nation’s food supply.